It was for these and similar mysterious reasons,
with which Moses and the prophets were acquainted, that they forbade
the name of other gods to be pronounced by him who bethought himself of
praying to the one Supreme God alone, or to be remembered by a heart
which had been taught to be pure from all foolish thoughts and
words. And for these reasons we should prefer to endure all
manner of suffering rather than acknowledge Jupiter to be God.
For we do not consider Jupiter and Sabaoth to be the same, nor Jupiter
to be at all divine, but that some demon, unfriendly to men and to the
true God, rejoices under this title.42284228δαίμονα δέ
τινα χαίρειν
οὕτως
ὀνομαζόμενον. And
although the Egyptians were to hold Ammon before us under threat of
death, we would rather die than address him as God, it being a name
used in all probability in certain Egyptian incantations in which this
demon is invoked. And although the Scythians may call
Pappæus the supreme God, yet we will not yield our assent to this;
granting, indeed, that there is a Supreme Deity, although we do
not give the name Pappæus to Him as His proper title, but regard
it as one which is agreeable to the demon to whom was allotted the
desert of Scythia, with its people and its language. He, however,
who gives God His title in the Scythian tongue, or in the Egyptian or
in any language in which he has been brought up, will not be guilty of
sin.42294229 [Note the bearing of
this chapter on the famous controversy concerning the Chinese
renderings of God’s name.]